Posted by JohnL on April 10, 2001, at 4:06:55
In reply to Re: What doese zyprexa for BP? » JohnL, posted by Wendy B on April 8, 2001, at 9:40:43
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> John or anyone else,
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> What do you think about Zyprexa combined with Wellbutrin SR, 300 mg per day? I'm on that plus 1800 mg Neurontin per day, for recently-discovered bipolar dx.
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> Thanks for any information, hope you are well. I've followed your posts, and I really respect you for the help and sympathy you've shown to others on this Board for such a long time...
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> WendyHi Wendy,
I think Zyprexa combined with any antidepressant stands a good chance of helping. Both Zyprexa and Wellbutrin will work on dopamine and NE chemistries, except by different mechanisms and from different angles. Zyprexa also enhances serotonin. So the combination could work well. In literature Zyprexa seems to show the most promise when combined with Prozac, but I think it has good potential with any antidepressant.I don't have a whole lot of faith in the mood stabilizers. None of them ever did me any good. And realistically it is difficult to find many uplifting success stories here that were a result of mood stabilizers. Every now and then we hear of someone who did super well with Lithium or Depakote or Lamictal or Neurontin or whatever, but not very often. Usually we hear reports that they sometimes are helpful, but nothing earth shattering. In a lot of cases I think the mood stabilizers can actually make things worse by numbing or flattening emotions in a way that antidepressants cannot overcome. I have a lot more faith in Zyprexa.
Though it is accepted common practice to prescribe mood stabilizers for a bipolar diagnosis, I personally have not seen a whole lot of success in trying to match a drug to a diagnosis. We see that here all the time. Instead I prefer the approach of trying several drugs from different categories to find out what works and what doesn't for the particular person. In the end, a lot of success stories happened when drugs that did not have clinical relevence to the diagnosis were tried. In any case, I favor Zyprexa and put the mood stabilizers down toward the bottom of the list. I think they are much more helpful in calming down mania than they are at fixing depression. A lot of doctors and scholars would disagree with me, but that's just what I've observed over the years.
John
poster:JohnL
thread:58672
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010403/msgs/59282.html